Internal Factors towards Entrepreneurship As A Career Choice for Community College Students

Malaysia's National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2030 aims to build entrepreneurial talent as a catalyst for the country's economy. High unemployment due to lack of experienced workers, increasing number of graduates and unstable economy. Community college student graduates in the field of entrepreneurship only reached 4.9%. The importance of the study aims to investigate the contribution of the theory of fostering entrepreneurial career choice. Education as a continuous effort attracts students to engage in it. An intensive literature review explores the qualitative research construct of interviews with three successful automotive entrepreneurs. Quantitative research involving 381 Malaysian community college students. The results of the study reveal that the perception of internal factors has a significant effect on the choice of entrepreneurship. Analysis of the survey data found the level of students' desire for entrepreneurial careers at a high level; the selection level of students' entrepreneurial careers at a medium-high level. The government and the private sector play a role in providing training, courses, loans and giving appropriate advice to graduates so that the issue of unemployment can be overcome. The government's efforts to break through nepotism with entrepreneurs to raise the standards and standard of business dealings of youth entrepreneurs.


Introduction
The field of entrepreneurship opens wide opportunities and creates many job opportunities for individual to earn a higher income (Noor, 2021).A country will be more developed and prosperous if it has many entrepreneurs.This is because entrepreneurial activities carried out indirectly can create various job opportunities for the citizens of a country (Abd Samad, 2019).The researcher structured this study into two dependent variables and two important independent variables.The attitude and behavior of students towards the field of entrepreneurship are important characteristics of the independent variable.The dependent variable consists of the students' desire to become a successful entrepreneur after select an entrepreneurial career.Behavior can be identified as having a close relationship between career choice and organizational formation in the field of entrepreneurship (Amir et al., 2021).He suggested that the behavioral approach is a suitable phenomenon to be used in the research of entrepreneurial activities that includes the process of choosing progress in a weak state with a certain nature of the approach.The attitude, personality and perception of an individual can influence the behavior and behavior of an entrepreneur (Ling and Othman, 2022).The success of an entrepreneur is recognized through the actions and behavior taken by an individual (Hassan, 2020).This view and opinion can be supported by Hasim and Omar (2022).The decision of an individual who is interested in venturing into the field of entrepreneurship consists of a combination of behavioral operations with innovative elements of the social context (Awang and Ibrahim, 2021).

Objective
Identifying internal factors on the selection of an entrepreneurial career as a student's career choice after graduating from a community college.

Method
A combined study with the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches as the main approach of the study design to identify internal factors on the selection of an entrepreneurial career as the main career choice of students after graduating from a community college in Malaysia.The use of interviews as a qualitative method and questionnaires as a survey method to obtain data is the best way (Hamzah, 2021).This method has the strength for the researcher to be able to know the method to identify how to measure variables from various information that has been obtained in interviews and research questionnaires (Abd Samad, 2022).Many researchers namely Creswell et al. ( 2018), Othman (2020) and Sumo et al. (2023) the use of survey research is more effective for researchers to analyze data from respondents as well as statistically many variables in a short time.The use of combined research with interviews and questionnaires can obtain an overview of the problems obtained by the researcher in the study from qualitative data and easily see quantitative data more effectively (Zainuddin et al., 2022).

Research Design
The research design of the combined research method for qualitative data using interview data collection follows theme analysis with text data results while quantitative data uses questionnaire data collection following statistical analysis with numerical data results.

Participant and Procedure
The population is 51,245 Malaysian Community College students.The sample is 381 students.Interview and questionnaire methods were implemented to study internal factors towards entrepreneurship as a career choice for students from community colleges in Malaysia.Part A features related demographics of the respondents, part B about the internal factors of students on the choice of an entrepreneurial career.SPSS descriptive statistical method of mean and standard deviation was used by the researcher.The validity of the questionnaire is > 0.30.Reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) is > 0.70.Interpretation of the results of the study analysis, the mean score can be calculated (Othman, 2002).

Analysis of Study Data
The researcher classified each score acquisition by following the mean score group such as 1.00 to 3.00 at the low level and 3.01 to 5.00 at the high level (Othman, 2019).

Result Discussion
Qualitative Approach A qualitative approach with the results of interviews was carried out with successful automotive entrepreneurs who were willing to go through what was stated as a desire and career choice in the field of entrepreneurship.The combined method of descriptive qualitative and quantitative analysis is used by researchers to obtain data analysis through the relevant method more effectively.Research respondents were found to be able to pursue a career in the entrepreneurial automotive field that focuses on business.This is clear from their knowledge and experience as in the interview below.

First Automotive Entrepreneur
The first automotive entrepreneur believes that it is important to have the will and choice of entrepreneurship as a career in our lives.He feels honored by others besides being able to fulfill his own heart's satisfaction.In addition, he was also able to earn a very lucrative income from choosing an entrepreneurial career.
...this career is important in our lives by gaining extensive knowledge and experience... we feel honored, able to fulfill our heart's satisfaction... in addition to earning a decent income...
The internal factor that drives the first automotive entrepreneur is the feeling of satisfaction when the work is the best.He feels proud of doing work and projects by achieving good results in self-employment activities.He believes strong decisions are important to determine his own career.He is willing to sacrifice personal comfort to get benefits and good opportunities.He tries to carry out the work to achieve the set objectives.

Second Automotive Entrepreneur
The second automotive entrepreneur has stated that the entrepreneurial career as a real profession with the selection in the field of entrepreneurship and business.This career is important for individuals to be able to work independently without being tied to work under others.

…I know that entrepreneurial careers focus on real professions related to business choices… love to work alone… don't eat other people's wages…
The second automotive entrepreneur feels satisfied when the results of his work are the best.This internal factor can encourage him to feel proud in doing work and projects for achieve good results in his business activities.He believes that strong decisions play an important role in determining one's career.Good benefits and opportunities allow him to be willing to sacrifice personal comfort in the workshop operator for successfully achieve the objectives that have been set.

Third Automotive Entrepreneur
The third automotive entrepreneur believes that the will in the selection of an entrepreneurial career is something important for oneself by starting a business from the initial stage which can be seen from the statement below.Individuals who have the desire to choose an entrepreneurial career can not only exercise social responsibility by helping in the development of the economic status of themselves and others, in addition to being able to increase economic growth for our country.This allows our country's human capital to be willing to take high risks and be able to successfully compete with other developed countries that are comparable to the rest of the world.
... all this is the result of our hard work that started with self-effort... we had to play an important role in economic development... willing to take risks... able to compete with other developed countries...
The internal factor that motivates the third automotive entrepreneur is the feeling of satisfaction when the work is done well.He also feels very proud when doing projects and works until he achieves very good results in his own business activities.He believes that strong decisions are important in determining one's career.He is always ready to sacrifice personal comfort for achieve the objective by obtaining the desired benefits in the entrepreneur.

Quantitative Approach
The findings of this study have shown that the Internal Factors (IF) driving the selection of students have a high mean level in the field of entrepreneurship.Students agree on IF2 with a higher level (M = 4.53) of entrepreneurial career, followed by IF1 (M = 4.36), IF5 (M = 4.29), IF4 (M = 4.15) and IF3 (M = 4.07) with an overall the level of internal factors of students towards entrepreneurial career is 4.28 which is at a high level.This high overall mean distribution exists because many students strongly agree with items such as "I feel proud of doing work and projects by achieving good results in self-employment activities.","I feel satisfied when the results of my work are the best."and "I try to carry out the work to achieve the set objectives." in this study has illustrated that students have positive internal factors towards the field of entrepreneurship.The results of this study found that the percentage of students' internal factors towards entrepreneurial careers is at a high level.It can be acknowledged by Hanafi et al (2018); Aishah (2021) who believe that individuals who have a strong will to do all activities can show more positive possibilities on the actions they want.
A study by Mazirah (2018) has shown that internal factors such as human will mean intention, desire, interest things and desire for something.This study also reported that the intention and internal factors of an individual who tries to explore and try an activity can determine that the field is the field they want to venture into.The findings of the study have also shown that vocational college students have a high level of inclination in choosing an entrepreneurial career.The study of Othman et al (2022), shows that the level of perception of graduates is high and positive with a tendency in choosing an entrepreneurial career.This is because the respondents have a high level of desire after being exposed to entrepreneurship training.The desire for an entrepreneurial career is high for higher education graduates as supported by Ishak (2017) in a study of the readiness of science teachers at Malaysian College of Science.
The study of Othman et al (2020) also show that the success of a venture depends on the effectiveness or responsibility of an entrepreneur which is determined as an internal factor and his own behavior.For example, this study found that advisory services about entrepreneurship mutually influence the internal factors of students who are active in entrepreneurial activities.The results of this study are in line with Kraus (2019); Jena (2020); Halizah (2022) who show that an individual's choice of a career in the field of entrepreneurship can be seen from their behavior towards something.Findings are positive and correlated with students who have decide to enter the field of entrepreneurship after they graduate (Cera et al., 2020).The results of the findings can be confirmed that the theory of planned behavior is the closest determinant of will to internal factors and human motivation (Ajzen, 1991;Hisrich et al., 2008).

Conclusion
The level of internal factors of students towards entrepreneurial careers is at a high level.The level of external factors towards entrepreneurial careers is at a moderately high level.A few graduates consider choosing entrepreneurship as their only career (Yazid et al., 2020).The education approach as a continuous effort attracts the interest and desire of students to enter the field of entrepreneurship (Ab Rashid et al., 2018).Graduates with high knowledge are considered as potential human capital who become successful future entrepreneurs, willing to explore entrepreneurial career opportunities and always dare to be competitive in the global market (Nuradibah, 2018).The government and the private sector play a role in providing training, courses, loans and giving appropriate advice to graduates so that the issue of unemployment can be overcome.The low perception and view of graduates need to be changed and choose an entrepreneurial career (Abd Samad et al., 2019).